What Does The Tower Of Babel Mean In The Bible

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Genesis is the book about creation and beginnings that can be interpreted in many different ways, especially with the story about the Tower of Babel. The Tower of Babel is a commonly known story that may seem simple when your first read it, but when you look deeper into the text it actually has a more complex meaning. Through the use of different literary elements in the Old Testament, helps the reader to have a better understanding of the story and its actual meaning. The Tower of Babel is also told through different perspectives, one being from the society’s point of view and the other from God’s. This story illuminates the disobedient nature in humans and how God responds to that.
The Tower of Babel occurs in the book of Genesis. Genesis …show more content…

They wanted to build a city for themselves. This is showing that the people had no intention of fulfilling God’s instructions about spreading out and populating the world. They decided that they were just going to settle in the plain of Shinar and build the tower out of pride and fear. The city that they were trying to build symbolized defiance because they were trying to make a name for themselves and their own selfish reasons. By them doing this, it could also be interpreted as them wanting to become their own idols. This tower was supposed to reach the heavens to gain access to it. In the verse it also says, “Otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth,” when they said this, it was intended to be understood with a negative connotation. They feared being scattered all over the world because they thought it could potentially be the reason why they lost their culture or identity. Building the tower was a deliberate plan to stay together and not listen to what God was telling them. The tower became the main place for them to worship, but no matter how high the tower was it would never have the ability to reach the …show more content…

He wants to do this so that the people are able to learn a lesson and to show them that no one can be mightier or greater than Him. He also “Scattered them from there over all the Earth” (Gen 11:8, NOAB). The people then stopped building the tower because they were placed all over the Earth. They sinned against the Lord and He disapproved of the sheltered life they were trying to build for themselves. They did not fill the Earth as God commanded, which disappointed God. When they got scattered all over the Earth they all got new languages and their original language became lost. God blessed Noah and his family and the reasoning behind the different territories, families, and languages shows how God had always intended for there to be a diversity of people and increase in numbers. The Tower of Babel will always be a symbol of the peoples’ defiance that interfered with their

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